American Idol. The Office. Grey’s Anatomy. Lost. The Hills.
These are just a few of many shows that college students watch regularly. Despite their loyalty to these television hits, students have had zero input regarding television audiences for approximately 50 years.
Nielsen Media Research, the group in charge of tracking viewer ratings, only recently began to include college students in its system. Previously, the organization opted to exclude college students’ opinions since researchers believed that college was simply “all about academics.”
Fr. Jim Mayzik, program director of new media film, TV and radio, said he supports the change.
“To me, it was kind of a no-brainer to include the group of college students. All of our media is coming down to these niche-specific audiences, and this is a group of kids that they’ve been missing all along,” said Mayzik.
John Daly ’08, an executive producer at the HAM Channel and next year’s FUSA vice president, is also in favor of the change. He said he is skeptical of the company’s previous disregard for college audiences.
“College is more than just higher education in the form of class time. It’s about gaining experiences from all over,” said Daly. “If by watching television, perhaps the HAM Channel, you find your life calling or are inspired to do something more than just watch television, that’s learning. College television is considered academic anyway because it is students [who are] making these programs for credit or part of their education in the entertainment field.”
Other students were surprised at the Nielsen Media Research’s assumption that equated college students exclusively with academics.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Gianna Mondoro ’09. “First of all, I have not been in a single dorm room that lacked a TV. Secondly, the majority of the time, the TV is on whether or not it is being watched. For those facts alone, it should be obvious that college students watch TV and don’t study all day.”
Sara Prager ’09 echoed this sentiment.
“I don’t even usually watch TV at home, but I do here. This says a lot about the media and what kinds of shows they put out on TV if they don’t even take into consideration what college kids are watching,” said Prager.
“I think it was poor market research. They were losing important information that they could have made a huge profit with,” said Dan Toplitt ’09.
Mayzik said it is vital to track college-age students since the viewer audience has declined in the past 10 years.
“TV viewing among college students is competing against iPods, YouTube and video games. The highest spending capacity is age 18 to 24; to be able to track [these students] is crucial,” said Mayzik.
Leave a Reply